Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach - German Empress

German Empress

The Austro-Prussian War soon ended in 1866 but four years later, the Franco-Prussian War started in 1870 and Augusta continued to hold Bismarck personally responsible. However, the aftermath of the war left Wilhelm as German Emperor and Augusta as German Empress.

Augusta felt the Imperial Crown a personal defeat; she wanted the Prussian supremacy in Germany to succeed by "moral conquest" and not by bloodshed. Her opinion of the war was established by erecting an educational establishment in Potsdam in 1872, as "a home for the education of destitute daughters of German officers, military officials, priests and doctors from the field of honour as a result of the war of 1870-71."

Augusta buried her differences with Bismarck only in her last years, as it seemed he was the only suitable man to support her beloved grandson, Wilhelm. However, Wilhelm disliked Bismarck and soon forced him to resign during the first few years of his own reign.

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